One Man’s Opinion
Bart Ziegler is the on-line gardening columnist for the Wall Street Journal. He tends to take the side of the every-gardener – not the “mow, blow and go” guys — but beginners hoping to easily create beautiful plantings. Bart raises the question as to whether we really need new plants, and if they are actually “improved.” 
He also says that a lot of information in books, on-line, in magazines and the like, turn off new gardeners by being too technical, rule-oriented – and horrors – introduce plant names in Latin. I can’t say that I totally agree, especially when it comes to scientific names. I admit that gardening poses problems that, say, cooking doesn’t seem to. An egg is an egg is an egg – right? Then again, baking is certainly as scientific as gardening, if not more so. What if one doesn’t know a tablespoon from a teaspoon, or a regular from a jumbo egg? Disaster. The difference between learning some skills will be in the results, and nothing gives a gardener confidence more than success.
Want to take a break from the pressures of the modern world. Just try doing that by taking up the violin for one afternoon. Anyone can easily and quickly take up gardening and get satisfaction – even by planting one plant.
The bottom line is that Bart Ziegler’s thoughtful and encouraging columns are really worth reading.
Click on the small black arrow at the left on the bar below to start listening, or click on the MP3 link to download the show into Windows Media Player or iTunes:
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